The Drummer: a past life story

Blow, blow, don’t overblow,*A drummer with his boy earned money playing drums at a festival. On the return journey, however, the boy’s incessant beating attracted the attention of bandits. | The story and title speak of a “drum” (bheri), while the verse uses dhamati, which normally means “blows”. The repeated idiom recalls the onomatopoetic Sanskrit dhamadhamā, which in Marathi, Hindi, Kannada, and Nepali has the sense of a repeated drumbeat. On the other hand, the next verse is almost identical and concerns the blower of a conch or horn. Rather than rendering the two verses to match the commentary, I assume they originally had the same sense.for overblowing is bad.By blowing a hundred was gained,*Sataṁ is explained as “a hundred dollars”. But there is a play on words here, for sataṁ can also mean “the good, the true”.by overblowing it was lost.

“Dhame dhame nātidhame, atidhantañhi pāpakaṁ; Dhantena hi sataṁ laddhaṁ, atidhantena nāsitan”ti.

Blow, blow, don’t overblow,*A drummer with his boy earned money playing drums at a festival. On the return journey, however, the boy’s incessant beating attracted the attention of bandits. | The story and title speak of a “drum” (bheri), while the verse uses dhamati, which normally means “blows”. The repeated idiom recalls the onomatopoetic Sanskrit dhamadhamā, which in Marathi, Hindi, Kannada, and Nepali has the sense of a repeated drumbeat. On the other hand, the next verse is almost identical and concerns the blower of a conch or horn. Rather than rendering the two verses to match the commentary, I assume they originally had the same sense.“Dhame dhame nātidhame, for overblowing is bad.atidhantañhi pāpakaṁ; By blowing a hundred was gained,*Sataṁ is explained as “a hundred dollars”. But there is a play on words here, for sataṁ can also mean “the good, the true”.Dhantena hi sataṁ laddhaṁ, by overblowing it was lost.atidhantena nāsitan”ti.